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Title: Kathy
Author: Nina P.
Rating: G
Summary: Welcoming a baby should be a joyful thing.

Galway, 1743

The screaming had stopped and a sudden silence filled the room.

\\The baby must be borne.\\

Liam was sitting on the floor of his room, leaning back against the wall. He was glad his mother wasn't screaming anymore, but there was something unsettling about the quiet. Why was it so calm? Why didn't he hear anything?

\\Isn't a new baby supposed to cry, or something?\\

He wanted to check on his mother. He wanted to learn if he had a brother or a sister. What he didn't want was to face his father who would probably stand there, holding the newborn in his arms and say something like: "Look at my son, Liam. He is a big, strong boy. He will make me proud."

\\Aye, he'll say something like that, sure enough. After all, I don't make him proud, I'm not fit t'be his son.\\ Liam thought, bitterly.

So he sat there for sometime, until he found the mettle to get up. He no longer gave a damn what his father would say or do, he needed to know if his mother was alive and well.

Just when he reached the door, he heard his father shout: "A daughter? Isn't she able to give me a son, a good son?"

Liam stood frozen, listening to the sound of his father's footsteps passing his door, fading as the man moved further away.

\\So, I have sister.\\

The sound of the front door being swung open then slammed shut echoed through the house. Liam waited another minute to make sure his father was gone, out to drink something in a pub no doubt, and then he walked to his parent's bedroom.

He opened the door, but the sound from within made him stop at the threshold. His mother was crying. She gave him one brief look, full of misery and distress, then she turned away as her tears continued to fall.

Beside the bed stood the midwife, holding something in her arms.

"Yer mother did well, Liam. She'll be right as rain soon enough, don't y'know. But she should be gettin' some sleep."

With that she walked through the door, but when she passed Liam, the midwife put the thing she was holding into his arms. Then she was gone.

Liam stood there, his mother was crying, he had the ... the *baby* in his arms, and he didn't know what to do.

"Ma?" he asked insecurely, but she just sobbed something like: "Get out!"

So he went out into the garden and took the baby with him.

"So sweetheart, all alone with yer big brother," he said as he really looked at her for the very first time.

She was the cutest thing he had ever seen. So small, so helpless, he felt an instant need to protect her. When she smiled at him - and it *was* a smile, t'be sure - well, it was like the sun was rising only for him.

"Wee one," he whispered, a tear slipping from his eye. "Ya din'no get the nicest welcome. Me neither. They wanted me to be the big, strong heir, then they put all their hope in you. But don't worry, they won't do a thing t'ya. I wouldn't let that happen."

And in that moment he knew it was true.

He would never let anything bad happen to her. He was her big brother and he would always be there to protect her. The sweet, little thing, that smiled at him. She seemed to trust him, she seemed to ... to love him.

And maybe she did. Then she would be the first person to do that, the only one.

END